West of Berkshire Sub Group

The West of Berkshire Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCB) Sub-groups are a tri-borough partnership consisting of three LSCBs: Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham, which are all under the governance and leadership of one Independent Chair. The overarching aim of the West of Berkshire LSCB sub-groups is to gain wider partnership learning across the West of Berkshire to inform practice and improve outcomes for children and families.

The West of Berkshire LSCB has the following sub groups: Case Review, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)and Learning and Development.

West of Berkshire, Learning and Development Sub-group

This group leads the strategic planning of Learning and Development (L&D) opportunities and oversees operational delivery of interventions. This underpins the priorities of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards (LSCBs) and the needs of the relevant stakeholder organisations across the west of Berkshire.

The aim is to monitor provision of L&D across the west of Berkshire, while coordinating a response to learning needs, to ensure people have the skills and knowledge necessary to have a positive impact on safeguarding outcomes.

Establish whether there are lessons to be learned from the case about the way in which local professionals and agencies work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children

Identify clearly what those lessons are, how they will be acted on, and what is expected to change as a result

As a consequence, improve inter-agency working and better safeguard and promote the welfare of children

Some cases may meet the statutory criteria to be reviewed as a Serious Case Review (SCR), whilst other cases, will benefit from being reviewed as a Multi-agency or single agency partnership review. All these reviews give insight into how agencies work together to safeguard children, and are a focus for driving improvements and providing transparency about the issues that may arise.

West of Berkshire Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Task and Finish group

Due to the adverse impact that FGM has on the physical and emotional health, safety and wellbeing of girls and women, it has been identified as an area for priority work by the West of Berkshire LSCBs. The purpose of this work is not to duplicate any existing guidance, policy or procedures, but to strengthen our local joined up response by setting out our vision for raising awareness, and improving our response to FGM, in partnership with community groups.

As part of this process we have produced a vision and action plan, plus a helpful resource pack which brings together key information about FGM, a risk assessment tool and clear referral pathways into services.

Chair: West of Berkshire Independent Chair

For further details on West of Berkshire FGM, Tool kits, fact sheets and assessment tool.